Luke Dobson, Mia Michaud embody the holiday spirit

The Christmas/Holiday season brings many things of import to those of us in the Garrison City.

I, however, hearken to an action begun in 2009 when young Luke Dobson “wanted to bring his family’s holiday decorations to the next level.” Listen up all you home holiday decorators.

In 2009, Luke spent a year of planning, constructing and sequencing, with Luke’s Lights became a reality in 2010. According to Luke, in 2012 he decided to give back to the community and incorporated a food drive with his front yard masterpiece, asking people who viewed all that to donate non-perishable food items for the St. Joseph Food Pantry.

Each year Luke sets a goal for the amount of food collected and each year he has exceeded that goal. Starting in 2012 with a target of 300 pounds, he received more than 900 pounds. To give you an idea of how much this has grown, for 2016 he set a goal of 2,500 pounds and received 2,776 lbs!

Now for 2017, Luke is looking at 3,000 pounds non-perishables.

One might think that Luke is resting on his fir laurels, but no. This year he has new lights and new music (music you say? Of course, he installed a closed radio circuit which plays on your car radio.) This year brings to your aural pleasure The Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Cloverton’s Hallelujah.

You may think that the very skilled Luke, who in the past has also hooked up Dover’s City Hall in the same manner, is a retired electrical engineer who has unlimited time do perform this magic. Such is not the case. Luke graduated from Dover High School third in his class in 2016 and is a sophomore at Yale University.

Perhaps we should grade him accordingly in heart, caring and community involvement and name him #1 in that class.

This is a very successful project and the Dobson family tries to keep the traffic down somewhat. If you wish to view/donate, go to www.lukeslightsnh.com with an address request. Informaton can also be found on Facebook under lukeslights.

Christmas spirit # 2.

I may have told you this story before, but it calls out for notice every year.

Somersworth holds an annual candy cane hunt at the Somersworth High School athletic field. Last year (a darn chilly one) there were attendees in the hundreds, many younger than I can ever remember being. As all were coming back for cookies and hot chocolate after the hunt, I, the intrepid journalist, spied a youngster with several of the goodies in her hand. I asked how many she had and got a response of 6 or 7. “Wow” I responded. “I had more,” said Mia Michaud, age 8. My next question was “where did they go,” thinking in terms of them being gobbled up.

Giving me more warmth in my heart than I thought possible on this cold, cold night, she responded, “I saw some kids that didn’t have any so I gave them some of mine.”

But that is just part of the story.

A few days later, Dover held its first nighttime downtown holiday event and once again, I was freezing my ears off covering the story. Who should I bump into but the young lady and her mom.

I greeted them and we chatted for a couple minutes when who do I see walking near us but Santa and Mrs. Claus. I called them over and recounted the candy cane story at which point the most revered people on the planet at this time of year (at least to this young lady) came over and fawned all over her complimenting her on being a wonderful person. Words cannot describe the look on the girl’s face, but I think you can imagine.

On Dec. 9, St. Mary Academy will offer a pancake breakfast with Santa from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Tickets available at stmaryacademy.org/santabreakfast

Also on the 9th, the 2nd annual Hometown Holiday Party will take place downtown. If you recall last year, it was a grand slam home run. Lots of stuff going on from 2-7 p.m.; the time was changed to allow even more people to celebrate and shop. There will be a smore’s station, ice sculpture and Janetos Market will be sponsoring a gingerbread contest, with ‘guess who’ judging.

There’s one more great holiday event that takes place every year and is treasured by hundreds. On Sunday, Dec. 10, you will find Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Dover Ice Area from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The kids (or you, you big lunk) can sit on Santa’s lap and share their wishes. There will be candy canes galore and, for the younger set, story time and a little singing along with the famous couple.

While we are on the topic of great holiday stuff, have you seen downtown Dover at night? Wow, wow, wow.

— Ron Cole can be reached at mrdoverdoins@gmail.com

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